AUSTIN — Weighing in on contentious NAFTA negotiations as President Donald Trump wants a deal to be hammered out by mid-April, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is warning U.S. trade negotiators not to dump investor protections.

He’s also urging them to avoid changing rules that could disrupt supply chains in the Lone Star State.

In a two-page letter Wednesday to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Abbott said the two provisions in the current agreement that are “critical to the economic growth and stability of both Texas and the entire nation” should be safeguarded and not changed.

One of those provisions establishes binding arbitration procedures that allow private investors to pursue claims against U.S., Mexican and Canadian governments for alleged violations of investor protections contained in the agreement.

“Investments like those in the Mexican energy industry make it possible for U.S. exports to enter more foreign markets and to be more effectively tailored, marketed and distributed to foreign consumers,” the letter states. “This is crucial for the rapidly increasing volume of U.S. crude oil, natural gas and petroleum product exports, more than half of which come from Texas.”

Abbott notes that a “significant portion” of current U.S. energy exports are bound for Mexico and Canada, “with Mexico purchasing about half of all gasoline exported by U.S. refiners and Canada importing more U.S. crude oil than any other country.”

“In order for American companies to continue to invest in Mexican and Canadian infrastructure and natural resource development and for our country to fully realize the associated benefits for U.S. exports, those companies must be assured of fair and equitable treatment by our NAFTA trading partners,” Abbott states in the letter.

So-called “rules of origin” provisions of NAFTA also should be retained because they ensure that the benefits of the agreement “extend only to good produced by the parties to the agreement and not to goods produced wholly or in large part in other countries,” Abbott writes.

Negotiators working on changes to NAFTA are said to be considering changing those provisions concerning certain goods, including motor vehicles.

“Such changes could radically disrupt the vast network of supply chains throughout North America, drive up costs and create inefficiencies for American companies,” Abbott warned, noting that Texas would be particularly hard hit.

Texas annually imports 40 percent of its goods used in manufacturing under NAFTA, including $11.5 billion in petroleum products from Canada and Mexico and $6 billion in auto parts from Mexico.

“Stricter rules of origin will force Texas businesses and businesses throughout the country to produce greater numbers of goods without NAFTA benefits, which will lead to increased production costs, higher consumer prices and job loss,” the letter states.

Texas exports

Noting that NAFTA has helped diversify Texas’ economy and “fostered a robust, yet stable labor market,” Abbott cautions against changes in the agreement that could undo its benefits to Texas and other states.

“For more than 20 years, NAFTA has been an important agreement for Texas,” Abbott said. “The stability and predictability of the agreement have enabled investment decisions that have led to a substantial increase in exports between Texas and our NAFTA trading partners.

“I hope you will champion the preservation of the provisions that have contributed to the economic prosperity of our state and the nation as a whole,” he writes.

Over the past 23 years, the trilateral free-trade treaty has tripled U.S. trade with Canada and Mexico to $1.2 trillion of goods and services last year, from about $350 billion when the treaty was first signed.

No state has won more from this growth in trade than Texas, which exported more than $110 billion worth of goods to NAFTA nations last year, according to statistical reports.

On Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that the Trump administration is pushing for a preliminary NAFTA deal to announce at a summit in Peru next week, and will host cabinet ministers in Washington to try to achieve a breakthrough.

The White House wants leaders from Canada and Mexico to join in unveiling the broad outlines of an updated pact at the Summit of the Americas that begins on April 13, as technical talks continue to work out the details, according to the report.